About: PPC Ian

Ian Lopuch (PPCIan.com) is a top online marketing executive who has had direct P&L responsibility on over $150 million of search engine marketing spend during his 9 years in the industry. Currently, Lopuch is Vice President, Search Marketing at a large publicly traded company. Previously, Lopuch held online marketing leadership positions at Inflection.com, QuinStreet, and Nextag. Lopuch holds his BS in Computer Science from Stanford University. In his spare time, Lopuch is an avid domainer, web developer, and blogger via his company, IJL Productions LLC (IJL.net). Residing with his wife on the San Francisco Peninsula, Lopuch is passionate about empowering and educating online marketing professionals. You can follow Ian via his online marketing blog, PPC Ian.

In the world of digital marketing and business overall, I’m a tremendous fan of conferences. Conferences provide the ideal opportunity to network, meet new people, see new places, and learn new things. There happens to be an amazing conference just around the corner, the coolest of the summer: Acquisio Summit 2015.

If you’ve been reading PPC Ian for a while, you know that I’m a tremendous fan of Acquisio. Their co-founder and CEO, Marc Poirier, is one of the kindest and smartest people in the digital marketing industry. Acquisio offers an incredibly high-powered performance marketing solution, one that automates around 90 percent of the work so you have time to focus on the real strategy. In short, they are amazing, and a platform you absolutely must audition.

At the beautiful Hyatt Regency in Montreal, conference attendees have access to preferred room rates. With Acquisio Summit spanning Wednesday July 29 – Friday July 30, it ends just in time for you to enjoy a weekend of music at the world-famous Montreal Osheaga Music Festival.

Getting down to business, what can you expect to learn at Acquisio Summit?

The mobile and local PPC environment

Automated campaign management at scale

Bid and budget optimization

Acquisio’s open platform and partner ecosystem

New features and releases

Want to share the conference with your boss, and get approval to attend? Upon navigating the conference website, I was really impressed to see that Acquisio shares a helpful tutorial on How To Justify The Conference To Your Boss. Just remember to move quickly because the conference is just a few weeks away!

Need even more justification? It is my great pleasure to announce that Acquisio is extending a special 10% discount to PPC Ian readers. Simply enter the code "PPCIAN" and you will get 10% off your Acquisio Summit pass.

Have you heard of agile software development? If you work in a technology-focused environment, it’s likely you have. While many engineering teams used to leverage the waterfall software development model, many are now transitioning to agile. Our world is moving quickly, with flexible and fast-moving companies winning the hearts of consumers. The agile framework gives software developers the ability to adapt rapidly, while exceeding the consumer’s expectations.

Given the popularity of the agile framework, one starts to wonder: Can agile be applied to other disciplines, such as marketing? Today, I’m absolutely thrilled to share The Kenshoo Guide To Agile Marketing from my good friends at Kenshoo. It’s very fitting that Kenshoo published this guide because they truly embrace the agile mantra, as a company that is always innovating rapidly to lead the forefront of digital marketing technologies.

What can you expect to learn in Kenshoo’s new guide? Quite a bit, in my opinion! The guide starts off with the definition of agile marketing. Then, you’ll learn the six core values of the agile marketer. Next, you’ll enjoy studying the rise of big data and predictive marketing. Synthesizing it all, the guide ends with tips on becoming an agile marketing organization. If you’re a leader at your company and looking to take things to the next level, I highly recommend Kenshoo’s guide.

I’m always reading new whitepapers and eBooks to learn, grow my career, and add value to those around me. Kenshoo’s new guide is one that truly resonates with this scrappy, results-oriented marketer.

I’m a tremendous fan of public speaking, it’s so much fun and a true adrenaline rush! Recently, I had the honor of speaking at Programmatic I/O San Francisco. I co-presented with my good friend Chris Innes from SteelHouse, in an exciting session called The Agency and Marketer Connect.

As someone who’s been acquiring customers for a very long time (11-years), my favorite channel these days is programmatic. The world of programmatic advertising is evolving rapidly, infinitely complex, and the talk of the industry. Programmatic I/O is the conference for leaders in the programmatic space, and it truly was an honor to present.

During our session, Chris and I highlighted our client-agency and client-technology partnership. When it comes to cutting-edge digital marketing, great partnerships truly mean everything. It was fun presenting our strong partnership, areas of collaboration, and results!

I wanted to take this opportunity to truly thank John Ebbert, AdExchanger, and the Programmatic I/O team. Hosted at the historic Westin St. Francis hotel, I have some fun pictures from the event below.

The other day, I received a strange phone call. I’m not going to go into details, but let’s just say that a professional contact/friend of many years called me and essentially burned the bridge. Now, I’m a a reasonably forgiving person, so the bridge was not really burned because I was able to save the day by being the bigger person. However, many people are not forgiving like me. I was surprised the person calling made this mistake, because it’s one that people typically learn (often the hard way) at some point in their career, never to make it again. Today, I wanted to write about burning bridges, and how you can avoid doing so! Please read on, today’s tips will greatly amplify your career and save you from the great challenges that burning bridges can cause. These tips will make you a better leader.

First and foremost, what does it mean to burn a bridge? Basically, it means acting in a way that damages a relationship that was previously professional. It means you act in a way that creates an awkward situation, sometimes irreparable. A business relationship that was once sound is now in a state of disarray. In my experience, it just isn’t worth it! This stuff will always come back to haunt you in the future. Avoid burning bridges at all costs.

Tip 1: Even if you treated in an unfriendly way, do not react back with anything other than kindness. Throughout your career, you may not agree with everything that is happening. There may be situations that seem "unfair". Some situations may even test your emotions (especially if you have been working long hours, and are low on sleep to begin with). Never, ever react to this type of stuff. You may think you’re right, but sometimes you are not. Even if you are right, do not do anything drastic. The calm, professional businessperson always wins. Keep it cool, and avoid burning those bridges. Be the bigger person, the leader.

Tip 2: Always leave on a great note! Leaving your company for a new job? Give proper two week’s notice. Be very cordial and helpful. Document everything possible. Treat your co-workers with respect. Don’t brag, keep it low-key. What about the situation where you are leaving but didn’t expect it to happen? Stay calm, and be incredibly positive and cordial. We’re in a very small world here in digital marketing (and technology overall). You will run into everyone again. And, it’s just the right thing to do, be that great professional.

Tip 3: Have a thick skin. In the world of business, things happen. I truly believe that everything happens for a reason. Have that faith and inner peace. Don’t worry if things seem "unfair". Don’t worry if things are not going your way. The very thing that is not going your way could create incredible opportunity for you in the near future. You never know what is right around the corner. Have a thick skin, and carry on. Always do what’s best for the business and you cannot fail!

Tip 4: Find great teammates and rely on each other. Sometimes you will be a mentor to others. Sometimes, others will be a mentor to you. Build that strong team. Build that support network. When you surround yourself with great leaders, you cannot go wrong. There is true strength in numbers.

Tip 5: Think about the long term. Business is all about the big picture. Act in your best interests and your company’s best interests from a long term perspective. Take time to think before doing anything!

Tip 6: Be humble. There are a lot of high-powered professionals reading this blog. Smart, successful people got where they are for a reason. They are great at what they do! No matter how smart you are, however, remember that you can always be wrong from time-to-time. By staying humble, you will always be in that mindset of avoiding danger. Treat every single day like it’s your first day at work.

Tip 7: Be ready to forgive yourself and others. Stuff happens. People make mistakes (including you and me). Remember how I started this post? If you can be the bigger person and build a practice of forgiveness (of course if circumstances allow for it), you will make the business world a better place. You will also amplify your own quality of life. That said, you can forgive, but that doesn’t mean you need to forget. When someone burns the bridge, you can always reserve the right to remember what happened.

Hope these tips help, everyone. It’s all about the people. Forge those world-class business partnerships and they will pay dividends for years (and decades) to come!

If you’ve been reading PPC Ian for a while, you know that I’m a tremendous fan of Marin Software. Marin Software is an incredible digital marketing platform for enterprise-level marketing professionals, teams, and agencies. Continuing their rapid trajectory of growth and success, Marin just acquired social media platform Social Moov.

As a long-time client and enthusiast, I recently had the incredible honor of presenting at Marin Software’s all hands meeting. Presenting at their headquarters in San Francisco, to the right is a picture of yours truly and David Yovanno, CEO of Marin Software. I cannot thank David and Marin enough for the great opportunity! It’s motivational moments like these that I truly cherish. The goal of my presentation: Thanking the entire Marin Software team for everything they do to make my life better!

I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight the importance of building strong business partnerships. In the world digital marketing, we work in a truly unique space with amazing people. I view my strongest partnerships as friendships. Thanks Marin for being an amazing partner and friend!

I'm PPC Ian (Ian Lopuch), one of the most recognized customer acquisition and search engine marketers around. I've grown from PPC Marketing Associate at a startup to Vice President, Customer Acquisition at a large public company after graduating from Stanford University.